Dark clouds forming over China

I’m back in Beijing and back to work, albeit struggling as my foot recovers. The weather has been mostly good, but there’s something else afoul in China recently.

The government’s ideological-fueled crackdown on liberties continues to grow, so much so that it might be hard to keep track of them. Internet censorship took a big step recently when the authorities blocked Gmail in late December and then last week blocked mainstream VPNs (Virtual Private Networks, which allow users to access the Internet through private links) on Apple iPhones and iPads.

Then this morning, I woke up to read that the education minister came out and told Chinese universities to stop using textbooks that “promote Western values” or criticize socialism. University academics have also been told to stop criticizing the government, while a province even mulled plans to install CCTV in university classrooms to monitor professors over the past year. Journalists and artists have also been urged (warned) to adhere to Marxist values while accepting tighter control and scrutiny. Churches and human rights lawyers have faced crackdowns of their own as well.

I’ve said before I don’t see things going too well for the country, especially as its economy continues slowing and its government goes on cracking down on everything left, right and center, and spouting Marxist rhetoric. What I’m unsure about is whether the leadership is doing these things because it feels invincible or is desperate.This article sums up why China might be feeling a bit vulnerable, which is indeed facing a host of challenges.

Yet another hospital attack took place, resulting in a doctor dying along with his assailant after both fell down an elevator shaft in a Hebei hospital earlier this week. There is absolutely no excuse for attacking a doctor and killing him. The hospital’s doctors and nurses then went on a march through the streets the next day to mourn their colleague and highlight the lack of security. This has been a recurring problem that has happened across the nation even in Beijing.

In what was a bit of a shocker, a government regulator came out last week and blasted e-commerce giant Alibaba, which launched the world’s largest-ever IPO last September, over the prevalence of counterfeit items on its market websites. Alibaba, owned by China’s second-richest man Jack Ma, hit back at the regulator, the SAIC, with some unusually strong words of its own. This is very interesting since it pits a very wealthy and well-known entrepreneur against a strong organization of the central government. As this article points out, similar clashes have happened in the past and the government has usually come out on top.
The tiff seems to have settled a bit but this raises the question about whether the government will start cracking down on its own large companies, as it has already done on major foreign companies such as drug giants, auto companies and Microsoft and Qualcomm. The regulator has picked a very late time to release its critical report, which it had completed by last July but claimed it had held off from releasing public due to not wanting to affect Alibaba’s IPO. Alibaba’s share prices have dropped significantly this past week after the report. Alibaba’s Taobao site, which lets vendors sell directly to individual consumers, does have a lot of fakes so there is some merit to the SAIC’s report but this is the first time it has openly criticized Alibaba, which many consider a massive and rising star in China’s private sector.

Yeah, things just seem to be getting more restricted with this leadership.
The doctor’s story is a big tragedy; unfortunately there are too many cases of assaults on doctors and nurses on the mainland.